During that time she and her team implemented a raft of digital, mobile and online strategies that ‘disrupted’ traditional models, which their competitors tried to follow.

“My decision is purely based on a desire to broaden my industry experience,” Raue tells CIO New Zealand.

Raue is staying at Air New Zealand until November and has yet to decide on her next role.

Raue joined Air New Zealand as a contractor in 1999, then progressed to roles including /distribution and Customer Solutions Manager and General Manager Group IT Production. She became CIO in April 2007.

“We are not stuck on any one industry… We keep a brief on what airlines are doing in a certain technology space. That is important to us but we tend not to follow, we tend to be different.”

Working with the other business units, the ICT team introduced award winning projects like grabaseat, where international deals sell out in minutes, and is now one of the most bookmarked home pages across New Zealand. The ICT team also harnessed RFID technology to cut down queues as customers without baggage can go straight to the gate, or customers can self-tag their bags.

Air New Zealand has consistently been in the top 15 of CIO100, the annual report on the biggest ICT using organisations in New Zealand. The 2015 report says the airline has a 455- strong IT team managing more than 13,000 screens. Their key IS projects this year include the digital workplace; logistics (DORIS), revenue management and mobility.

Next: Julia Raue’s pointers for building a great career, a strong team

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